I'm no expert, but it sounds as though someone sold you a roof and called it
a deck. There seems to be a lot of components that I have never seen on a
deck before. The decks that I have seen usually consist of support beams
and posts, bolts, nails, wood or manmade planks for floor boards, and wood
or manmade railings. I have never seen plywood used for the construction of
a deck or rubberized coatings and membranes.

Most likely if this is not taken apart and redone correctly (Whatever that
may be in this case) you will continue to have problems throughout its life.
If it were me, I would try to determine what would be easier, cheaper, and
more reliable; Repair the existing deck or tear it down and rebuild with a
simpler proven system. Get some other contractors to take a look and see
what they suggest.


John Grabowski
http://www.mrelectrician.tv


"TURTLE" wrote in message
news

"Michael Roback" wrote in message
...

I remodeled a house three years ago. The builder may alot of mistakes,
including many of the subs he chose to use. Unofrtunately we were not
under
contract but paid him hourly so our recourse is limited. The rebuilt a
deck
using plywood on doug fir joists hanging on a cleat bolted to the side
of my
house. He opted to cover the deck with a rubberized coating covered
with
aggregage but never did the finish coat as he said when the job was
finished, I could do that. In the meantime, with all of the rain, the
seams
opened up letting water through the deck causing significant staining as
well to checking on the plywood below. There is alot of black stuff
that
could be mold but I suspect could just be dirt too. One part of the
deck
was sheeted over existing red wood slats and on that deck that is
smaller,
the damage seems more severe. I opened up some soft spots and scooped
out
the plywood down to the red wood which was still wet from the winter. I
called in the develper of the deck system and he informed me that the
joints
of the plywood should have been filled with a heavier version of the
liquid
rubber and taped with 4" polyproplene tape prior to the first coat of
liquid
rubber. This was not done and he says this is why the seams opened up.
He
said the rubber and aggregage coat should have protected the deck
without
the finish acrylic coating. He says that on the sheeting over the red
wood
he can make a "matrix" slurry of rubber and sand and fill the voids, but
some are as big as 4" X 6" usually around the joint. On the rest of the
deck which was sheeted on joists without an underlying deck he says that
to flat frame 2 X 4 s supporting the under side of each seam will help
and
it anything is bad enough it can be cut out and replaced. He says that
if I can cut out wood rot it will be fine just to patch or fill but this
is beyond my knowledge. I don't know if it was the builder, roofer who
did
the deck or the manufacturer of the product who erred. The roofer says
that the specs at the time he did the deck did not call for taping the
deck.
The manufacturer is recommending just patching with the slurry, cutting
out
and replacing where needed and them recoating areas with liquid rubber
and
then a finish coat of acrylic. Is this just a bandaid? I don't have
the
money to rebuild the deck? Also, I have been testing primers and have
not
found one yet to seal the water damage well. The manufacturer says to
prime
with a WATER based acrylic primer so it the deck ever leaks it won't
trap
water in the plywood a harm it anymore. I know that BIN would be good
but
it is oil based??? Is there a good deck system that can go over this and
act
like a solid membreane holding all water off of the deck. It has been
so
compromised that just going with this system after the repairs scares
me.
Also the deck sits on a shim of plywood that runs the length of the deck
as the builder had not done the elevation correctly. The strip looks
water stained and somewhat damaged but does not crumble to the touch.
Should I just seal it and leave it alone By the way this deck is maybe
20 X 40 and wraps around my house. Any help or advise would be
appreciated.
Thanks.


This is Turtle.

As the Boys at Blue Collar TV said always have you a Big Deck or people
will
talk about you. 20' X 40' Deck is a a Big Deck !

TURTLE